I just got back from a long Saturday at Wizard World’s Comic Con in Philadelphia, and here are the top five moments of the day.
5.Preacher cover artist Glenn Fabry. What a cool, down to earth guy. My wife is a huge fan of his cover art and couldn’t wait to meet him. Not only did he personalize a cover for her, he was super cool and humble. His prints, which were limited and awesome, were only $10, which is cheap for a Wizard World con. When my wife explained to him how his covers drew her into reading the graphic novel, he told us a story. “I met Dominic Cooper [who is playing Preacher on AMC] here earlier today, and he said my covers were the reason he took the role.” With the new show on AMC, expect this guy to blow up. But don’t expect him to sell out.
4.Discussing Muppets with Guy Gilchrist, who drew the original Muppet comic strip and was eventually asked by Jim Henson to come up with designs for the cartoon Muppet Babies. He said “Jim was planning the baby sequence for the third movie and they asked me to sketch what all of the Muppets would look like as babies.” He went on to say you can always tell which are his because he drew the three lines on their mouths.
3.Thor’s Chris Hemsworth was asked about his character in the new Ghostbusters reboot. A fan said he was basically a reboot of Janine, which is quite a different character than he usually plays, and asked him about the role. He described “Kevin” as “…a lot of improvisation. Once we started, the character really took off. He’s completely wacky…he tries to help but has to be rescued more than he helps.”
2.Tom Hiddleston’s constant denial that he is the new James Bond was…creative. It was brought up several times, and he genuinely seemed to be unsure whether it is him or not, but then again he is a pretty tremendous actor.
1.Number one was easy. This con collected the faces of the film Back to the Future. There was a panel (more coming on the panel) including writer Bob Gale, Christopher Lloyd, Leah Thompson and the highlight of the whole day, Michael J. Fox. One of the best lines of the day actually came from Fox, who was asked his feelings when he found out he could have been doing the film (before replacing Eric Stoltz). He explained it: “I was in a trailer in Pasadena, where I had yak hair on my face and was drinking lunch through a straw…I heard about the Spielberg movie and wondered, why am I a werewolf instead of doing that movie? I heard Crispin Glover was in it, and I knew Crispin, and I thought to myself, ‘F**k Crispin Glover.'”
